Time? – Ever heard of people who work 20 hours a day and are still struggling?

Persistence? – Many people never give up for 30/40 years and still don’t have anything to show for it!

Skills? – Some of the most extraordinarily skilled people in their respective fields still don’t get their dues

Value? – We are getting there, but it’s not enough

The only thing that people are rewarded for is Perceived Value to the market. In other words, what the market THINKS is the value it gets from them. From Large Businesses to Sports Stars to Movie Stars to Mom and Pop Shops to Low Paid clerks, everyone is paid in proportion the perceived value they provide as a result of their service. The greater the perceived value, the greater is the compensation.

Now, some may say movie stars or sports stars provide no real value! Tell that to the companies that hire them for whom the ticket/merchandise sales they bring in are worth hundreds of millions of dollars. One doesn’t have to save the world, just be valuable to the market that is paying for them.

Now, is it possible that you have a high real value but low perceived value? Absolutely! There are thousands of undervalued companies and millions of undervalued people out there. Think about it, you can really be truly valuable but if the market is unable to see what you are worth, the perception of your value will remain low and that will limit the growth of your business.

Just make sure your Perceived value is backed with real value, because without real value backing your perceived value, sooner or later, things will go wrong as they have in the cases of hundreds of companies/ hundreds of thousands of people in history.

Think about and list down the ways in which you can improve the value you provide to the market and ways to improve the perception of its value. Do that and see your business/career progress by leaps and bounds!